This invention relates to vacuum cleaners and more particularly to upright vacuum cleaners or the like having a retractable bare floor cleaning brush in the rear of the suction intake nozzle.
It is conventional in upright vacuum cleaners and power nozzle attachements for canister cleaners to include a power driven rotatable agitator or beater brush mounted in the mouth of the suction nozzle for cleaning floor coverings such as carpets and rugs. The brush is mounted for movement with the nozzle between various selected nozzle heights above the floor. For high pile floor coverings the nozzle is positioned at a high elevation and for the lower pile heights the nozzle can be lowered. For cleaning bare floors the nozzle is lowered to its bottommost position. However, it has been found that even at the lowest position cleaning of uncovered or bare floors is poor apparently because of the low friction between the floor and the brush and because the chassis of the cleaner or attachment is spaced above the floor the rotating agitator brush throws debris back too fast for the air stream to carry all the debris into the nozzle mouth. This problem has been recognized in the prior art and an additional, but retractable, brush has been proposed. In the bare floor mode the brush is lowered to its lowermost position and is retracted for cleaning. One such approach is illustrated in Payne et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,068 in which the brush is resiliently mounted for vertical movement.